Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 284
‘Presumably Sevil has looked into this matter.’
(c) Sevil bu konuyu araştır-sın.
-OPT.3SG
‘I want Sevil to look into this matter.’
In Appendix 2 we present an inventory of all the Turkish suffixes that contribute to the
expression of tense, aspect and modality. As in most languages, there is considerable
overlap between the articulation of the three categories.
21.1 THE EXPRESSION OF TENSE, ASPECT AND MODALITY IN
TURKISH
In Turkish tense, aspect and modality are marked by a combination of suffixes from the
following categories:
(i) Verbal tense/aspect/modality suffixes (8.2.3)
(ii) Copular markers and -DIr (8.3).
The copular markers are restricted in the range of tense/aspect/modality meanings they
cover. In order to make available in nominal sentences (12.1.1.2) the full range of
tense/aspect/modality specification, the copular/ auxiliary verb ol- is used as the carrier of
suffixes of position 3 (see 12.1.1.3).
In verbal sentences the use of compound verb forms containing free auxiliaries
(13.3.1.2) makes possible combinations of tense/aspect/modality marking that cannot be
achieved on a single verb stem, and thus constitutes an integral part of the overall system
for the expression of these categories. The role of compound verb forms is discussed in
21.5.
It is important to note that in Turkish tense, aspect and modality are only fully
articulated in finite verb forms. For discussion of the extent to which tense, aspect and
modality can be marked in the non-finite verb forms used in subordinate clauses see
21.4.2.1–2, 24.4.7, 25.4.1, and 26.2.3.
21.2 TENSE
In this book we use the term ‘tense’ in the strict sense of the grammatical marking of
location in time.
In Turkish the primary tense differentiation is between past and non-past. The suffixes
involved in the expression of present and future tense (-(I)yor, -mAktA and -(y)AcAK) are
markers of relative tense. This means that the expression of absolute present and future
tense is dependent on the absence of any other tense marker, such as the past copula -
(y)DI, which would indicate a reference point other than the moment of speech.